Leandra Medine

SM 622 Transcript EPISODE 622 [INTRODUCTION] [0:00:33.7] FT: Hello So Money listeners, So Money Nation. If you’re interested in fashion, culture, feminism, you’ve probably heard of the media site Man Repeller and/or its founder Leandra Medine. I’ve been a fan and follower of Leandra for several years now. Getting the chance to chat with her finally was a real treat. Now, Leandra launched Man Repeller originally as a fashion blog while in college at The New School. For her, at the time, it was a platform to write as well as make her stand out from the competition when applying for magazine jobs in New York, very smart. This was back in 2010. The site quickly took off, it was super authentic, it was playful, the site and Leandra became stars, receiving a huge profile in The New York Times. Many ran partnerships with major fashion and beauty brands and a front row seat at major runway shows. Dream come true? Yeah, in some ways. What began as a vehicle to land a job became the best job for Leandra. But what we learn is that even as her company has grown very fast over a short period of time, Leandra, at 28 years old is still trying to figure a lot out. Including her own future. Is there a talk show down the road? I say yes. Here is Leandra Medine talking about money, starting a business, talk shows, shoes and more. [INTERVIEW] [0:01:57.6] FT: Leandra Medine, welcome to So Money. [0:02:00.8] © 2017 Farnoosh, Inc. "1 SM 622 Transcript LM: Thank you for having me. [0:02:02.9] FT: I’ve been watching your career rise since 2010 probably when you started Man Repeller. Obviously you know a lot about you from, all that you put out there you know? You’re a humorous writer, you talk a lot about your fashion but also you have perspectives on things, personal life, you have a spending diary that you’ve done. I wanted to ask you, have you ever really talked about money publicly? [0:02:32.8] LM: I’m not really sure what you mean by that. [0:02:34.5] FT: Have you ever talked about like your personal finances? Has it ever come up in interviews? These days, people are really interested to learn about you know, how we are as money people. Are we spenders, are we savers? Do you feel like this is something that you feel comfortable talking about? Does it ever come up in your – you know, when you’re talking to colleagues or friends, is it something that just sort of like rolls off the tongue or it’s not – in a lot of circles, it’s kind of taboo. [0:03:03.8] LM: I suppose I talk a lot about how I make money. I mean, monetization is obviously an important part of a lot of conversations that I have as a founder. But do I talk about my spending habits pretty regularly? No. [0:03:16.2] © 2017 Farnoosh, Inc. "2 SM 622 Transcript FT: You did do a spending diary on Man Repeller, which is the sort of empire that you’ve started. It was born out of when you were in college as a blog and has really become a full-fledged business. On Man Repeller, one of the things that you did that I thought was really interesting and I want more of this. I really do. Is, your spending diary as well as your mom’s spending diary and some other folks. What did you learn through that process, did you like tracking your spending? Did you learn anything about yourself? [0:03:46.1] LM: Did I learn anything about myself? Not really. That series was inspired by one that Refinery 29 runs which I find so addictive. Their series is actually called Money Diaries. They have various people from various different professions write out their week of spending. They share everything – their salary, how much their rent is, if they have to pay rent that week, they share that also. I find them so addicting and interesting to read because it really is such an intimate part of another person’s life that you don’t’ often get to see. I thought that maybe it would be interesting or fun to track my own spending for a week and publish it on Man Repeller. It sort of became a series that we started doing on Man Repeller as well. Of course, we always give credit to Refinery 29 because it’s really their idea, not ours. Did I learn anything about myself? Not really. I’m a pretty cognitive person. I’m aware of what I spend and when I spend it. I’ve never really been an over spender and I grew up only using cash. I was very – I was acutely aware of how much money I had or did not have. [0:05:02.2] © 2017 Farnoosh, Inc. "3 SM 622 Transcript FT: Your mom also tracked her spending. You kind of reported on it. This comes up on the show a lot, we kind of go down memory lane about money, right? We discover that maybe sometimes the way that we are with money. Like you’re very cognizant of your spending, do you find that you are who you are today with money because of the background that you had? One of the big questions on this show is, what is the greatest money memory you had as a kid growing up and how has that manifested as an adult? [0:05:31.4] LM: The greatest money memory? I don’t know. Money was not really the center of my memories growing up. I was not even aware of money until I was probably like 15. I’m not really sure what you mean, what’s your greatest money memory? [0:05:47.6] FT: Well my parents talked about money a lot, we’re middle eastern. [0:05:51.4] LM: So am I. [0:05:52.3] FT: Yeah, I think we’re from the same tribe, I’m Iranian. [0:05:56.0] LM: Yes, my mom was born in Iran but she grew up between Israel and Italy and my dad is from Turkey. [0:06:02.8] © 2017 Farnoosh, Inc. "4 SM 622 Transcript FT: I don’t know if this was also the situation in your household growing up? But money was a very fluent topic. In the sense that we didn’t really shy away from it, we didn’t – it wasn’t like maybe in other households, traditional households, American households. It was sort of not polite to talk about money. My mother – we always joke, my mother always likes to talk about how much things cost. So she’ll ask you, she’ll say, “What a beautiful sweater or necklace, where did you get it, how much did it cost?” We find it really interesting to know the dollar signs attached to things for whatever reason. We’re also big on real estate. So, growing up, I think I didn’t have this trepidation around money that some of my peers may have or just this lack of curiosity. I had it. I really attribute my family for setting me up that way, for better or worse. That’s what really begs the question and we find a lot of interesting anecdotes on the show from people. Just curious if you had like a lemonade stand? Or you know, I don’t know, just any kind of vivid memory about money growing up. Did you grow up in New York City? [0:07:10.3] LM: Actually, I grew up in Manhattan. [0:07:12.4] FT: That’s interesting. I mean, not many people get that opportunity that is – I feel like people grow up really quickly when they grow up in New York. [0:07:20.0] LM: Yeah, I mean, I don’t anything else so I’m not sure what the alternative would have been like because I only grew up in New York. I never really considered it a money memory but you can call it that if you want. When I was maybe like 13 or 14 years old, my foot had finally become a size five which meant that I was eligible to wear Steve Madden shoes because their © 2017 Farnoosh, Inc. "5 SM 622 Transcript shoes did not – their sizing didn’t start until a size five. There was one pair of boots that I really wanted and they were $70. I saved up for about two weeks and bought those for myself but to me, that was always a story about how resilient and unflinching I become when I really want something. [0:08:04.3] FT: Let’s take that moment, unflinching you said, right? Determined. When you started Man Repeller and I don’t want to assume that it was just a hobby, maybe you had really – I think you were really intentional with it. But did you ever think that it was going to become what it is today? In such a short period of time. [0:08:25.5] LM: You’re actually giving me a bit more credit than I deserve. It absolutely did start as a hobby. I launched Man Repeller when I was a junior in college and I had – it is very genuinely an accidental business.

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